Summary of theft of my personal belongings and thereafter

Never expected such a situation to happen to me once again given how much I looked after my stuff. I guess when one traveled for long enough, Murphy’s Law shall catch up, or maybe I had become too complacent, having stayed in New Zealand for near to 6 months without anything happening. Well, nevertheless, this was my first experience of having my belongings stolen from me while travelling.

How it happened:
I was in the public library at Auckland CBD on the morning of 30th August 2012. My original plan was to meet up with my friend Cindy at 11am for a walk to Mount Eden. As I reached the library early at 10am, I found a book, left my bag on the floor beside me and started reading. When I finished my book at 10.50am, I look at the ground and found my bag was gone. Below is a simplified floor plan of that scene as I remember.

My reactions & the immediate aftermath:
As I remembered, the sight of the empty space where my bag should be gave me a shock as well as panic. I was flustered over the fact that my bag was missing. My first action after looking around my area was to check with the people sitting nearby whether they saw my bag. When it came up negative, the dread came and the thought of my belonging being stolen gave me a tight slap in the face. With so many valuables in my bag, I had to take action fast although I’m slightly not sure what to do exactly. Next I went to the library counter to report that my bag was stolen and was first directly to the “Lost & Found” counter by the staff. I was definitely sceptical about it being found there, with my bets firmly on it being stolen because of the simple reason that I never left my seat when I was reading the book. Still I had to try against all hopes and was proven right when there was no sign of it at the counter, so I returned to report my bag being stolen.

Next according to the staff was for me to inform the security guard. While waiting for the security guard, my friend Cindy arrived and with her arrival, she assisted me greatly on matters which would otherwise took me longer if I was alone. The security guard arrived shortly after and I gave him the summary of what happened as I recalled, even showing him the spot where my bag was stolen. His reaction left me severely disappointed. I was hoping he would point me to the right direction on what I should do next but all he did initially was to launch into complaining mode over how people in the library did not look after their stuff, about how many times he had to inform them to look after their stuff etc etc. To make it worse, his speaking tone imply that I didn’t look after my bag well which galled and pissed me off simply because I had never left my bag unattended it was on the floor beside me all the time when I was reading the book and it was stolen just like that. I almost lost my temper there with him but I’m also at fault for having my bag stolen right under my nose and I wanted to know what I should do next.

So after the nagging from him, I managed to find out that I need to make a police report and pass it to them so they could release the CCTV footage for investigation. During the time when he was nagging non-stop and checking things up, I managed to cancel my NZ credit cards with Cindy’s help. Luckily both our phones were connected to the internet, enabling us to check up on the phone numbers to call. She also found the number of Singapore High Commission in New Zealand for me to report the loss of my passport. I was very grateful for her help because my mobile phone was running low on battery then, due to the internet search. After finding out the general direction to the nearest police station, we made our way there, during which I cancelled my Singapore credit card. Compared to the disappointment over the security guard, at least the bank staffs was more helpful and sympathetic to my plight, assuring me during the process of confirming my details before cancelling the cards.

At the police station, the process of taking my statement was smooth although I hit a glitch of trying to remember all the belongings I had in my bag. Did managed to give the most important ones though before I ran into an obstacle: To get the police report, I had to provide some form of identification which incidentally I had none because all of my identification was in my bag (highlighting another danger of my habit of putting my wallet in my bag). Without any proof of identification, I could only get just the case number assigned to my case.

Hence, it started off with another scramble to find some document to identify me to the police. Luckily I had 3 options where I could turn to:
1) My hostel room which had a photocopy of my passport but was also the furthest away
2) My hostel also had a scanned copy of my passport
3) My immigration advisor had a photocopy of my passport too

I went with option 3 as it was the nearest to the police station. After getting the photocopy of my passport (Cindy had returned to her room to get her computer as well as some money to lend me in the meantime), I returned to the police station to get my police report which I promptly brought to the library, passing to the security guard in hope of getting the CCTV footage asap and kick start the investigation. Time was the essential because the faster investigation started, the higher chance was it for me to get my stuff back, but sadly, as later events shown, it was a misplaced hope. Anyway, with the report given, I was given the assurance that the CCTV footage will be sent to the police once the facility manager returned later in the afternoon (he wasn’t around when I gave the report as it was lunch time then). Of course, I had to go through another round of nagging, albeit a short one from the security guard again. With nothing else I could do, I returned to my hostel to sort out the remaining items, having caught up with Cindy again before returning.

At the hostel, the next item on my agenda was to inform the Singapore High Commission about my stolen passport in order to get a document of identity to facilitate my return to Singapore 2 weeks later. In a lucky way, this happened towards the end of my trip when I’m in the midst of sorting out my stuff in New Zealand to prepare for a return to Singapore after failing to secure a job, so most of the matter had be done like buying my air ticket. The process was smooth too after getting confirmation of my personal information from me. Afterwards, all I need was to fill in some form which they email me and to submit some documents to them to get the document of identify. As the Singapore High Commission was in Wellington (I did a check on where the Singapore embassy was before I arrived in New Zealand with the plan to inform them that I’ll be here for a while but the moment I found out that they were in Wellington, I dropped my plan to inform them since I was in Auckland mostly), I had to courier everything to them (including the administrative fee of $15 as well as the courier envelope for them to send the document of identify back to me).

After that, I use Cindy’s computer (to write on my blog) and whatsapp to inform family/friends of what happen as well as to reassure them that everything was under control. Basically, I had done everything within my means to prevent further loss although the loss of all my valuables meant that I had to totally revise my plans for the final 2 weeks in New Zealand. Next stop would be to go to the post office to get my courier envelopes as well as to the bank to withdraw some money (another lucky thing was that only a third of my remaining money left was lost in my wallet, the rest was safely in my bank). I still had enough money to last the remaining 2 weeks in New Zealand but I definitely had to cut back on everything. With the documents posted to the Singapore High Commission, everything I needed to do was done and I receive my document of identify promptly within 2 working days.

There after…
I was in a slight depressing mood for the next few days, replaying the absurd situation of having my bag stolen right under my nose in the public library again and again. I kept replaying it and going through all the “what ifs” scenarios that would have easily prevent the thief. To make it worse, the fact that I lost everything including my laptop meant that I couldn’t do much (I had initially planned to spend my final 2 weeks applying for more jobs as well as to catch up all the backlog on my blog but I couldn’t do it anymore) and the blow to me was made worse by the fact that all my photos from my South Island travel were lost.

With lots of free time at hand now, I was at a loss on what to do. I couldn’t go to the library as I usually do because it would bring back the painful memories of my loss. It hurt even more because libraries had always been a sanctuary for me where I could immerse myself in the world of the writers but now it became a painful place for me for a few days. Thus I went volunteering on Motutapu Island as many times as I could during my final 2 weeks in New Zealand, to do something constructive and take my mind off matters.

When I told people about the thief, one common reaction with people living in Auckland seemed to be the fact that someone would know someone who had their stuff stolen at the library. It seemed like there was a syndicate working at the library, committing these crimes. Plus one advice I gotten was to check online sites as the thief may post the items online to sell it off (I did that for a while but till date, nothing turned up).

On the investigation front, I waited patiently for either the library or police to get back to me but with no news, I returned to the library to check and came away with a blank, neither able to confirm whether if the library had pass the CCTV footage to the police nor if the police had received it. At least the security guard this time was more sympathetic and helpful although this can’t be said of the police. The staff I spoke to at the police station gave me assurance that a police officer was checking on the case and would contact me shortly. As days went by, nobody contacted me, resulting in me returning to the police station and starting some sort of “wait & see” game. Every time I went to the police station, the same staff would give me another date/time as the officer in charge of my case was not around when I visited. Then when the date came and went without anyone contacting me, I would return to the police station to repeat the whole process again.

The whole situation was frustrating me to no end, giving me the feeling that nothing was being done. I may be wrong (there may be more pressing case or they were short staffed) but this was the feeling I get, resulting in me having to visit the police station a couple of times to check up with them. Even worse, sometimes I felt that they just gave me another timing just to chase me away. So the whole matter just drag on and on till my final week in New Zealand. I also gave them my departure date from New Zealand, hoping it may help push matters forward but it didn’t helped much.

Up till my final week, I still have to return to enquire on the matter. The final date I was given just 2 days before I leave with the same staff telling me that a sergeant will be contacting me regarding the CCTV footage. They couldn’t attend to it right away because the sergeant was on leave. Maybe I was too naive then, believing the reason given to me, went back and waited. Thinking about it now, I think it would have been better if I requested for another officer to look into the matter because I was leaving the country soon.

Alas, the day came and no one contacted me regarding my case, hence I returned once again, highlighting the urgent need for them to get the CCTV footage because I’ll be leaving the country soon and I won’t be able to help out with investigation unless they were willing to fly me back. Somehow, it seemed to work and another officer came to assure me that they will be looking into the case (2 weeks after it had happened). I checked with the officer if they needed my help with the CCTV footage since I knew exactly where I was sitting at the time of the incident. They declined after checking with me if the library knew where I was at which was an affirmative. Having declined my help, I couldn’t do anything else except to wait again.

Once again, I waited and on the day before I left, I received a text from the officer saying that they had look at the CCTV footage and I was in a blind spot (a fact that I knew all along. I even shortlisted a possible security camera that may assist in the investigation but the fact that they didn’t seek my help, I couldn’t do anything about it nor could I confirmed it). They then requested me to provide a description and preferably a photo of my bag to help in spotting it from the entrance CCTV footage. I rushed down to the police station, only to find it close (the text was sent to me a few minutes before the closing time). Again, there was nothing much I could do and given that I was leaving on a early morning flight, I could only request for my friend Cindy’s help again, emailing her the photo of the bag plus a description when I got back to Singapore. She helped me passed the photo to the officer and was told that my bag was in a common colour (black), hence it would be difficult to spot it. Well, all I could say is well done, Sherlock, I think anyone could have said that. Haiz… It was definitely not helpful at all.

Given that I’m back in Singapore, I had since given up hope that I would get anything back, holding on to a very small hope that the person who got the laptop may contact me regarding the photos inside the hard disk (afterall, my contact details were in the desktop) but I would rate such a thing happen as near impossible. Had to apply for all my lost documents (passport/driving license) and incurring more expenses for them. Applied for claims under my travel insurance, disappointed at the claims paid out (seriously, the insurance company took too much away using the depreciation factor. It sucked big time because I really took care of my stuff and they were as good as new) and now still waiting for the claims payment.

Summary
1. From this incident, I knew that I could really survive on my own despite such a catastrophe happening and going through a short period of feeling down. Of course, I’m very grateful to everyone who had supported, helped and advised me through this difficult period, easing the pain of the loss, especially all my South Island travel photos.
2. One reason why this had happened to me was because I had gotten complacent after spending going half a year in New Zealand without anything happening to me plus the fact that I had been slacker with my belongings during my travels and nothing bad had happened. As the old saying goes, “Low crime doesn’t mean no crime”, my lack of attention would had marked me as a target to the thief.
3. The frustrating experiences I had with the first security guard at the library and the police was slightly even out by the better experience I had with the library other security guard, the banks staff, hostel staff and Singapore High Commission.
4. Travel insurance: I’m kinda neutral on it but I guess if one is going on a long trip, it would be good to get one, short trips wise, it would depend on the risks one is willing to get. While the insurance I bought covered me, the claim for my stuff was disappointing.